A Plague of Angels

In this installment Sir Robert is called home to London by his father to search for his missing brother, who has perhaps fallen with bad company, and must be searched for amidst a nest of players, including that weedy little balding guy, Shakespeare and an annoyingly arrogant atheistical Marlow who is going to get everybody arrested if he doesn't spout heresy a little more quietly!!

Elizabethan London makes a terrific setting for this fourth book, from filthy back alleys full of pickpockets to noble banqueting rooms full of backstabbing courtiers. Sergeant Dodd's bemusement at the antics of the mad Southrons and his offers to fight any three of them together, (just to keep things fair) kept me chuckling.

I'm sorry this series is over, I show more really enjoyed it. Hey Patricia Finney, please write some more Robert Carey mysteries!!?? show less

A nice twisty plot set in Elizabethan times, with great atmosphere evocative of the era. There are wheels within wheels, and lots of ambiguous characters, and the plot takes us from the aristocracy down into the lowest level of prisons.

I am giving this 4 stars instead of 5 mostly because i did not care for the depictions of either Marlowe or Shakespeare here. Neither was especially nuanced, and they were clearly complicated people.

Still- this was an entertaining book in an entertaining series, with a good feel for the period in which they are set.

This is book 4 of the series, and the most entertaining so far. Carey and his wonderfully funny sergeant, Henry Dodd are in London and Dodd's reactions to the sights and scenes of the big city are laugh-out-loud hilarious. Carey is searching for his brother who has disappeared. The title refers to a "gold angel", a coin. The plot involves the plague, counterfeiting, spying, Wm. Shakespeare, and Christopher Marlowe. We also meet Sir Robert's father, Lord Hunsdon.

Reads a bit like a checklist of what is normally not found in historical fiction. Gritty, nasty and just plain convoluted. Along with spying and an appearance from Shakespeare this seems to be trying a bit to hard to be something for everyone and yet failed me. Possibly it's because I came on this story late in the series but honestly I didn't care for the characters or what was going on. It's a story of forging gold and multiple plots and passed the time but several months later I find myself groping to remember anything significant about it.

It was ok, but real-life characters such as Shakespeare and Marlowe did not ring true to my mind.